Apparatuses for supporting work pieces in automated assembly line production techniques are known in the art. These apparatuses are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,787,505; 4,492,301; 5,060,780; 5,099,978; and 5,115,901.
Pallet conveyor systems are commonly used in automated assembly lines. A work piece that is to be assembled, machined or operated on rests on the support blocks which are mounted on the pallet. The pallets act as both a support for the part to be assembled and also as a method for transporting the part from one assembly station to the next. To move from one assembly station to the next, a conveyor system transports the pallet and the part along the assembly line where each workstation performs a specific operation on the part. These processes typically use a plurality of pallets and workstations.
In one common system, a belt conveyor frictionally drives the pallet from one assembly station to the next. When the pallet arrives at a work station, the pallet is stopped and the workstation begins its operation. To work on the part, the work station either removes the part from the pallet, works on the part as it rests on the pallet or removes the entire pallet from the conveyor to perform its work operations. When the work station concludes its operations, the part is returned to the pallet and the pallet is released to continue down the assembly line, or the entire pallet is replaced on the conveyor to continue down the assembly line.